The 2016 PMI Project of the
Year Award will be presented
at PMI Global Congress 2016—
North America, 25–27 September in San Diego, California,
USA. Register at congresses.
pmi.org/NorthAmerica2016,
and be sure to reserve a seat at
the PMI Professional Awards
Gala on 24 September, the
evening before Congress officially gets underway.

To apply for the 2017 PMI
Project of the Year or other
professional awards, head to

PMI.org.

Revolutionary scientific discoveries don’t come cheap. The equipment alone can be cost-prohibitive for even the wealthiest universities and corporations. To push into the next
frontier of knowledge, researchers must find a way
to work together.

That’s where the government can be a powerful
partner. In the United States, the Department of
Energy (DOE) Office of Science supports the design,
construction and operation of large-scale, open-access facilities that are too complex and costly for
any individual institution to build or maintain alone.
(DOE is a PMI Global Executive Council member.)

The US$912 million National Synchrotron Light
Source II (NSLS-II) project in Upton, New York,
USA is the DOE’s latest contribution to the scientific community. Completed in March 2015,
NSLS-II is now the world’s most powerful photon
microscope, allowing researchers from around the
world to analyze materials with atomic precision
and observe how they behave under real-world
conditions. The facility will help scientists develop
a better understanding of nanoscale materials and
advance energy technologies, says Steven Dierker,
PhD, project director for the NSLS-II project. He’s
also a professor of physics at Texas A&M University
in College Station, Texas, USA.

“I’m sure there will be discoveries at NSLS-II in
the area of life sciences that will enable us to understand disease mechanisms and develop new drugs,”
says Dr. Dierker.

But when the project was launched in August
2005, the specifications for NSLS-II were at or
beyond state-of-the-art, particularly with respect
to magnet precision and alignment and advanced
optics. This meant substantial innovation was
needed in the R&D phase to deliver a resource that
would support cutting-edge research for the facility’s life span, which is roughly 30 years.

“Since it was R&D, there was always some risk
associated with what the results will be,” says Dr.

Dierker. “We needed to develop contingency plansdepending upon how that work would turn out.”In order to achieve NSLS-II’s record-breakingbrightness, which translates to a higher resolu-tion for the X-rays produced, the team partneredwith leading researchers and experts from aroundthe world. Advisory committees helped design anextremely precise and stable accelerator ring systemas well as the necessary optics that would producethe desired resolution—but the team had to procure

900 custom-built magnets.

“We needed to design these magnets with aprecision that greatly exceeded anything that hadbeen achieved previously,” says Dr. Dierker. “In anumber of cases, the vendors had difficulty meetingour demanding requirements.”The team worked with the advisory committeesto identify which requirements could be relaxedwithout compromising the ring’s performance. Italso held regular workshops with global scientificstakeholders throughout the project cycle to ensurethe facility would achieve best-in-class status. In theend, the team was able to close the project ahead ofschedule and under budget. Careful planning evenallowed for scope enhancements that had not beenincluded in the baseline.

“We were able to add in about US$68 million inscope during the course of the project because ofthe very favorable cost performance throughout thelife of the project,” says Dr. Dierker. PMFINALIST

National Synchrotron Light Source II

NSLS-II project during construction in
Upton, New York, USA

Project: National
Synchrotron Light
Source II

Budget: US$912
million

Location: Upton, New
York, USA

Timeline: 2005–2015Key players: U.S.

Department of
Energy, Brookhaven
National Laboratory,
researchers and
academics from
around the world

Highlight: During its
peak construction
period in 2011, the
project was spending
about US$1 million
per working day.